What is a degree worth? Estimating the returns to undergraduate and postgraduate degrees

This event is part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science. Click here for information on other festival events.

The share of people staying on in education beyond the age of 18 has grown substantially in the UK since the 1980s. Yet until now, evidence on the effect of these qualifications on subsequent earnings has been limited. The newly available Longitudinal Educational Outcomes (LEO) dataset has changed that, allowing us to produce new evidence on the returns to various different post-18 qualifications.

This event will present key findings from three pieces of research published in 2020 by the IFS (and written in collaboration with various external colleagues), including the lifetime returns to undergraduate degrees, the returns to postgraduate degrees, and the returns to alternative post-18 qualifications. We will discuss the implications for policy, highlight areas where future research is needed and have a wider discussion with the audience about the findings.